they see opportunity in the millions of chinese students eager for a foreign education. nhk world's michitaka yamaka reports. >> reporter: more than a thousand young people from around china gather at a hotel in beijing. they are students attending an open house. more than 40 of them. >> i want to enroll in a prestigious american university because the quality is high. >> eventually for undergraduate students, and this is one of the main goals is to recruit more undergraduate students. >> reporter: many chinese state of the unions are keen on setting up foreign universities, and if they can, make it overseas to study. overseas universities are coming to them. for example, the missouri state university, a u.s. institution, has a campus. >> at what temperature does water freeze? what would you tell me? >> reporter: chinese students of the famed degrees of the university students in the u.s. more than 2,000 chinese have graduated from here since classes started six years ago. li xinyi hopes to join them. she's a senior studying busiss administration and accounting. li comes